Robot

New food delivery service Kiwi brings robots to campus

A brand-new online delivery service called Kiwi has come to UC Berkeley, making use of little wheeled robots to provide food all throughout campus. According

to Felipe Chávez, Kiwi’s president, Kiwi is an app that enables individuals to buy food as needed, with one small distinction– instead of people, individuals will have robotics concerning their front door. Chávez says this enables Kiwi to lower cost by reducing shipment fees by as much as 80 percent.Chávez stated he believed of the concept when he bought a pizza online and the delivery charge cost nearly as much as the real pizza. With Kiwi, Chávez said shipment doesn’t have to resemble that.”I think that it is really important that we help things in the city … end up being smarter and less expensive for everyone,”Chávez said.The KiwiBot uses binocular computer vision to navigate the premises around campus but is

likewise assisted by people who take control if the robot needs assistance crossing the street or browsing busy locations. Inning accordance with Chávez, Kiwi currently has 15 robotics running around school every day.Cade Johnson, a school freshman, said he has seen KiwiBots around campus before, beside his structure in System 2 and on Telegraph.

While he applauds the inventiveness of the robotics, he is concerned about what this may suggest for base pay employees, who might have their jobs taken by these robotics.” I’m delighted at the concept of something new and ingenious like this on our school but I still have my bookings,” Johnson said.Kiwi will be facing competitors from similar

delivery services in the Bay Area such as UberEATS and Postmates. Vikrum Aiyer, a spokesperson for Postmates, said the main market difference between Kiwi and Postmates is that Postmates offers a larger diversity of resources than Kiwi. With Postmates one can not just order food, however likewise flowers, medicine and office supplies.Chávez stated Berkeley struck the Kiwi team as a good location for Kiwi since of the diversity of the people and the truth that the neighborhood is friendly to new technologies such as the KiwiBots.”This is not just a model,”Chávez stated.”Simply last week we delivered 500 orders.”Chávez added that in his ideal world, Kiwi would have 1,000 robotics running in Berkeley however that this would also indicate the company would need to employ more human beings to power the robotics. The business has actually currently worked with a number of “Kiwers”to make sure all the robots are operating

successfully.Kiwi is hoping to expand and provide internships as a way to end up being more included in the Berkeley community, inning accordance with Chávez.Contact Kate Tinney at and follow her on Twitter at @K_Tinney.